What's fascinating for me about Green is that you have this product of 70s UK leftism and state funded academia: art schools, libraries, the more radical/experimental side of punk, squatting on the dole, etc... And he used this background to propel himself into glossy 80s American-style hyper-commercial pop. It's really weird and jarring when you think about it.

I don't think that's such an unusual trajectory in terms of glossy 80s pop acts, though in it's extremes yes. But in a way much of that was kind of 'the route', how you lived as an artist. Sade and Thompson Twins come to mind, I'm sure there were quite a few others. Adam And The Ants, Culture Club, Teardrop Explodes, Curiosity Killed The Cat? I dunno. Latterly Pulp maybe?

Yeah, what Peter York called "the video generation" coming up through art-schools and glam rock. But Scritti is an unusually extreme example of that tendency. And the way all the theory stayed with him, still talking about Derrida's ideas at his commercial peak as though it was totally natural for a pop star to be that academic.

I don't think that's such an unusual trajectory in terms of glossy 80s pop acts, though in it's extremes yes. But in a way much of that was kind of 'the route', how you lived as an artist. Sade and Thompson Twins come to mind, I'm sure there were quite a few others. Adam And The Ants, Culture Club, Teardrop Explodes, Curiosity Killed The Cat? I dunno. Latterly Pulp maybe?

Heh, Mick Hucknall?

From The Frantic Elevators

to Simply Red

Would've probably been more jarring if he'd been holding a pistol in his mouth on the Simply Red version, actually.

Last edited by michael; 03-04-2008 at 06:55 AM.
Reason: Images went away... good old hotlinking

Been trying with them again. He's obviously a lovely guy, really lovely. I still think Confidence is a masterpiece. I like his interviews. I liked getting told off for doing this thread, my high point on here I think.